digitalBTC Raises $3.5 million AUD to Launch AirPocket

Digital BTC, an Australian Bitcoin company that is publicly traded on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) as Digital CC Limited has secured a $3.5 million AUD funding round by a group of institutional and individual investors to launch a remittance-focused product, AirPocket.

CEO and founder Zhenya Tsvetnenko specifically explained that the funds from the “investment will be used accelerate the rollout and commercialization of AirPocket in Latin America and Caribbean.”

The company was originally seeking for a $3 million AUD funding round, until the demand from local investors rose and the company had to enlarge the funding round with another $500,000 AUD. The increased funding round raised the company’s cash to over $6 million.

The product soon to be launched in Latin America and the Caribbean is a smartphone app which “effectively allows anyone to act as a small Western Union outlet.” Users are provided with a map interface which displays other agents called AirAgents in another country who passes the money to the recipient. Every transaction established on AirPocket will be recorded on the bitcoin blockchain, which allows the ledger to be viewed by anyone anywhere. This model is similar to Bitcoin remittance app Abra, which was unveiled earlier this year.

Tsvetnenko explained “Our platform is unique in that it makes remittances easier by leveraging the sharing economy pioneered by Uber and Airbnb.”

According to Proactive Investors Australia, the beta version of AirPocket will be launched in June of 2015 and the commercial version is set to be launched for the fourth quarter of 2015.

DigitalBTC holds a minimum 75 percent interest of AirPocket and the other 25 percent is divided within the investors including William Witenberg, Juan Carlos Barrera and Sanjay Santhanam.

Digital BTC CEO Zhenya Tsvetnenko stated “The quality of the joint venture team provides strong validation of the commercial potential for AirPocket and I’m confident they are the right people to execute the business strategy in Latin America and the Caribbean and capitalize on the huge potential to disrupt the multi-billion dollar remittance market.”

Company’s Loss in 2014

The Australian bitcoin company Digital BTC traded on the Australian Securities Exchange as Digital CC limited reported a total net loss of $2.3 million in the second half of 2014.

After a substantially large loss, digitalBTC still holds net assets worth $6.87 million, in which over $740,000 are bitcoins and the remaining are cash.

As the global adoption of digital currencies including bitcoin is increasing as a system of payment, digital BTC aims to target the remittance markets in regions with poor banking systems and financial infrastructure such as Latin America and the Caribbean.